t was after two p.m. by the time they got back to Tokyo Station. At Kaga’s

suggestion, they decided to go directly to Shubunkan Junior High School.

When they got there, they went to the office. The woman who had

escorted them to the visitors’ room the previous day was taken aback to see

them again.

“I’m sorry,” Kaga said, “but we need to have another word with Mr.

Itokawa.”

The woman made a few keystrokes on her computer. “He’s teaching

right now. Is it urgent?”

“No. If he’s busy, we’re happy to wait until the class is over. Can we

use the same room as yesterday?”

“You’re welcome to. Can you find your own way?”

“No problem.”

They went to the visitors’ reception room and sat on the sofa side by

side, just like the day before. Neither of them said a word. They had said all

that needed saying on the bullet train back. (Though it was primarily

Matsumiya listening as Kaga expounded his theory.)

A number of things had come to light over the last twenty-four hours.

Both men were confident they would uncover the truth any minute now.

The bell rang for the end of the lesson. This was accompanied by a

roar that got louder and closer until they could hear a mass of boys surging

back and forth along the passage outside.

A few minutes passed and the door opened. It was Itokawa. He came

across as even more leery than the previous day.

Matsumiya and Kaga both got up and greeted him with a bow.

“What do you want now? I really don’t think there’s anything more I

can tell you.” Itokawa spoke gruffly, making no attempt to conceal his

annoyance.

“I do apologize. Actually, we would like you to show us something,”

Kaga said.

“What?”

Kaga paused a moment. “The swim meet results,” he said. “As you

know, there was a swim meet on the same day the accident occurred three

years ago. We would be grateful if you could show us the official record of

the event.”

Itokawa’s face twitched.

“Why on earth do you want to see that?” His tone was defensive.

“Everyone says that Tomoyuki Yoshinaga did what he did because he

was so upset at how poorly he had performed at the meet. Given that, we

think it makes sense for us to see just how bad his results were.”

Itokawa frowned. “What’s the point of that? Everyone knows

Yoshinaga performed badly. I can tell you that myself.”

“What we want to do”—Kaga took a step forward—“is to get the

details. We would appreciate your cooperation.”

Itokawa looked uncomfortable as the tall detective loomed over him.

“Fine. If you’d just wait here.”

“No, we’ll come with you. The staff room’s just across the way, isn’t

it?”

“The records aren’t kept in the staff room, they’re in the coach’s

room.”

“That’s not a problem. We’ll come with you.”

Matsumiya got to his feet and stood shoulder to shoulder with Kaga.

“Let’s go.”

Ever so grudgingly, Itokawa turned around and left the room.

Matsumiya and Kaga went after him.

Students stood chatting to one another in clusters outside the main

school building. They looked inquisitively at Matsumiya and Kaga as they

went by. Any grown-up other than a teacher was a person of interest in their

little world.

The coach’s room was on the second floor of a small building

immediately beside the swimming pool. The changing rooms were on the

first floor.

Itokawa unlocked the door. The room was small and contained a desk,

some lockers, and a cabinet. On the shelves, there were rows of thick

binders. The titles on the spines showed that they contained the results of

the meets.

“Exactly what we’re after.” Kaga pulled out a pair of white gloves.

“You’re okay with us taking a look?”

“Knock yourself out,” Itokawa replied gruffly.

As Matsumiya pulled his gloves, he watched Kaga rapidly leafing

through one of the files.

His hand stopped when he reached a certain page. The date of the meet

was August 18, three years ago. The day the accident had happened.

Matsumiya skimmed through the different events and the swimmers’

names until he found the name Tomoyuki Yoshinaga in the fifty-meter

freestyle. Yuto Aoyagi had swum in the same race, he noticed.

With his gloved hand, Kaga was pointing at another part of the page. It

was the entry for the two-hundred-meter relay. Matsumiya gulped as he

read the names of the team members.

First leg Yuto Aoyagi (3rd year)

Second leg Tatsuya Sugino (3rd year)

Third leg Tomoyuki Yoshinaga (2nd year)

Fourth leg Shota Kurosawa (3rd year)

“Take a note of this,” Kaga whispered. Matsumiya didn’t need to be

told; he had already pulled out his pen. The race results were of no interest

to them; all they cared about was who had been on the relay team.

Neither Yuto Aoyagi nor Tomoyuki Yoshinaga had taken part in any

other events.

Kaga closed the file and put it back on the shelf. The two detectives

turned around at the same time and were confronted by Itokawa standing

there. His face was gloomy and there was a cunning glint in his eye.

“Happy now?” Itokawa asked.

“Very happy. Could I ask another question?”

“What now? I’ve things to do, you know.”

“What subject do you teach?”

Itokawa frowned suspiciously. “Math.”

“Really? Well, there are all sorts of formulas in junior high school

math: Pythagoras’s theorem, the quadratic equation, that sort of thing.”

“And what’s that got to do with anything?”

“Memorizing formulas enables you to solve a whole variety of

problems. If, however, you memorize a formula wrongly to start with,

you’ll end up getting things wrong over and over again. That can happen,

can’t it?”

“Indeed, it can.” From the expression on Itokawa’s face, he was

clearly wondering what on earth Kaga was getting at.

“Make sure to get your students to memorize all the formulas

correctly.”

“Thank you, but I really don’t need you to tell me that.”

“I don’t suppose you do. Yes, sorry. Thanks for your help,” said Kaga,

speaking quickly and signaling to Matsumiya that they should be on their

way.

After leaving the school, they went to a local diner and had a late

lunch.

Once they finished their meal, Matsumiya extracted a few sheets of

paper from his bag. It was the photocopy of the registry of swim team

members.

“Tatsuya Sugino and Shota Kurosawa? These two were involved in the

accident three years ago along with Yuto Aoyagi. We can be one hundred

percent sure of that.”

Kaga nodded as he drank his after-lunch coffee.

“Very probably. Or at least, they have important information about the

accident. Something that they can’t reveal to anyone. Yesterday, it seemed

clear that Yuto was protecting someone. That’s got to be the other two boys.

I’m guessing he feels he can’t tell us the truth without getting their

permission first.”

“We need to get the three of them together to get them to talk to us.”

Kaga slid the photocopy to his side of the table. “I’ll go for Tatsuya

Sugino. You handle Shota Kurosawa.”

“Got it.”

The addresses showed that they lived quite a way from one another.

“It’s four thirty now. School will be over soon,” said Kaga, glancing at

his watch.

“Shall I bring Shota Kurosawa to you?”

Kaga pondered a moment. “How about we use the Aoyagi house as a

base?” he replied. “Yuto will probably be there now. And if he’s not, he

soon will be.”

“Yeah, fine. I’ll call you when I’ve found Shota Kurosawa.”

“Got it.”

Matsumiya parted from Kaga outside the diner and caught a cab. The

driver had GPS, so Matsumiya got the driver to input Shota Kurosawa’s

address.

The taxi stopped in the middle of a residential district. Matsumiya paid

the fare and slid out. In front of him there stood a row of substantial houses.

He walked along inspecting the nameplates and soon found the Kurosawa

house. It was a rather grand residence in the European style.

Matsumiya pressed the intercom and gave his name. As soon as the

woman who answered heard the words “Tokyo Metropolitan Police,” her

voice became one degree shriller.

The woman who appeared at the front door was elegantly dressed in a

lilac cardigan. This had to be Shota Kurosawa’s mother. She squirmed

uncomfortably when Matsumiya told her that he wanted to speak to her son.

“Has he done something wrong?”

“No, no.” Matsumiya smiled and made a deprecatory gesture with his

hand. “I just want to ask him a couple of questions. Isn’t he back yet?”

“He did come back, but then he went straight back out. He said

something about meeting a friend.”

“A friend? What, from his current school?”

“No. A friend from his club in junior high.”

“Club? You mean the swim team?”

The mother seemed disconcerted to find the detective so well informed

about her son. “That’s right.” She looked anxious and tucked her chin

defensively into her neck.

“Which friend?”

“It’s … Aoyagi.”

Matsumiya caught his breath. Was this just a coincidence?

“Do you know where they’re meeting?”

“I’m not sure.” She tilted her head to one side. “He said something

about meeting at the station.”

Matsumiya’s heart started pounding. The situation was becoming

critical.

“I need you to call your son right now and ask him where he is. Don’t

say a word about me.”

“Wha—!… How do I phrase the question?”

“That’s up to you.”

Shota Kurosawa’s mother went back into the house, a shell-shocked

look on her face. Matsumiya called Kaga and explained the situation while

he waited on the doorstep.

“That’s certainly worrying. I’ll head for the station too. We’ve got to

find them.”

“What about Tatsuya Sugino?”

“He’s not yet back from school. Who knows, perhaps he’s going to

rendezvous with Yuto and Shota.”

“All three of them at this specific moment … Do you think it’s a

coincidence?”

“No way. The murder of Yuto’s father provoked a change of mind in

Yuto. On top of that, I reckon the questions we put to him about the

accident yesterday got him thinking about links between the accident and

the murder.”

“I’m on edge.”

“Good. Relaxing is the last thing we want to do right now. We’ve got

to locate the boys.”

“Got it,” Matsumiya said. The front door opened just as he ended the

call. Shota Kurosawa’s mother looked crestfallen.

“He’s somewhere near the station, but he wouldn’t tell me exactly

where.”

Nothing doing, then. Matsumiya got the woman to give him Shota

Kurosawa’s cell phone number and took off.

When he got to the Nakameguro Station area, he started looking into

all the cafés and fast-food restaurants, keeping in touch with Kaga by phone

as he did so. The fact that there were so many youngsters of the same age

around only complicated things.

He was walking past a burger joint when a school uniform he

recognized caught his eye. He stopped and looked in. Yuto Aoyagi was

sitting at the counter by the window. Was the long-haired youth sitting next

to him Shota Kurosawa?

Matsumiya called Kaga to let him know.

Kaga soon showed up and the two of them made their way into the

restaurant. They went straight over to Yuto and Shota. The long-haired

youth, who was the first to notice them, swiveled around on his stool. A

look of surprise came over Yuto’s face when he followed suit.

“You’re Kurosawa, right?” Kaga said to the long-haired youth.

“What if I am?” Kurosawa said defensively.

Kaga looked down at Yuto. “Expecting Sugino any minute now?”

Yuto said nothing. From the sideways view of the boy’s face,

Matsumiya could see that he was trying to tough it out, the way kids do.

“Guess I’m right.”

“Piss off,” Yuto said, his eyes averted. “Who we see is none of your

business. We’re not breaking any laws.”

“Isn’t it because you broke the law that you arranged this little gettogether?”

The blood drained from the two young men’s faces at Kaga’s remark.

Shota Kurosawa’s eyes visibly reddened.

“What time is Sugino coming?” Kaga asked.

“He’s not coming,” Yuto replied sulkily. “I told him five o’clock, but

he hasn’t shown up yet. He doesn’t pick up when I call or reply to my

texts.”

Matsumiya looked at his watch. It was already after half past.

“When did you arrange this meeting?” Kaga asked.

“Lunchtime. I sent him a text. We’re at the same school, but he’d be a

marked man if the other kids saw him talking to me. I wanted to spare him

that.”

“Did he reply to that text?”

“Yeah. He was like, ‘I’ll do my best to be there,’ so I followed up

with, ‘You’ve got to come.’ Fat lot of good that was.” Yuto clucked his

tongue.

Kaga held out his hand. “Show me that text.”

Yuto gasped and his eyes widened. “What?”

“Just show me the damn thing. Now.”

Intimidated by Kaga’s forcefulness, Yuto pulled out his cell phone.

Matsumiya looked over at the phone in Kaga’s hand. Yuto had indeed

sent two texts to Tatsuya Sugino today. The first one read: “Need to talk to

you. Also contacted Kurosawa. We’re meeting at the Nakameguro burger

joint at 5.” Sugino’s response was: “Got stuff to do at home. Not sure I can

make it. I’ll be there if I can.” That was when Yuto had sent his follow-up

text. “This is SUPER important. You MUST come. May be linked with my

dad’s case. Yesterday the cops questioned me about Yoshinaga’s accident,”

it said.

Kaga gave Yuto back his cell phone and turned to Matsumiya.

Matsumiya flinched at the sight of his cousin’s face. The eyes had a

piercing look that he had never seen in them before.

“Call the incident room. Tell them to track down Tatsuya Sugino

urgently. Worst-case scenario, we could already be too late.”